


Flower Petals and Blood

by BrownHairedDork



Series: Flower Petals and Blood [4]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: F/M, Hanahaki Disease
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-20 21:02:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16145435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrownHairedDork/pseuds/BrownHairedDork
Summary: Chapter 4.





	Flower Petals and Blood

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while since I've last updated! College has been keeping me hella busy but I've finally worked around my classes to take the time and sit down in order to write the next chapter of this series. Tucker is now becoming more involved with the reader. Church is, well, he knows something is wrong.

 

 

 

"You sure walking around in my armor twenty-four seven is even a good idea?" Your voice was still a little hoarse behind the helmet.

Golden visor pointed directly to stare, unblinkingly, at Doc in front of you. The male had stepped back once he had helped twist your helmet in place, and the lock had given off a satisfied hiss of air pressure regulate inside your suit. After you both had shooed Caboose off into the kitchen to hunt down for something to eat, and give you two time to talk, Doc had come up with this ridiculous idea. You never wore your armor that much out of all of Blue Team, but now that you would be the one to never take it off it would seem odd to the guys about this decision.

"Nonsense. Besides if you were to ever cough up petals once again when the others were around, there would be no possible way of them seeing it. Hence the everyday armor wearing." Giving a satisfied nod, the medic had seemed pretty pleased about his idea.

It all seemed pretty unreasonable still, some 'full proof plan' always had holes in it once it was put into action. Shaking your head, Caboose had burst out of the kitchen. A few sorry excuses for MREs in one hand and a cup of day old orange juice in the other. If there wasn't a helmet covering his expression then you could have sworn that he held a beaming smile. One only a child could pull off.

"Juice makes the coughs go away, right?" The male exclaimed your name vividly if your chest wasn't as tight as it was, you would have laughed from Caboose's 'help'.

"Yes that's just what will help me, thank you Caboose." A genuine smile painted across your face easily. A hand had reached out to grab the small cup of the orange skin that was probably way too warm right now.

In your cold, clammy hands you held the cup so delicately. Fingers nearly shaking with the stress of how a literal flower garden was growing and weaving its thorny vines around your lungs and bronchi. The warm orange juice tasted like heaven in your parched, sore throat. Surprisingly you didn't cough, as you had lowered your slightly raised helmet just as Caboose had plopped down on the shitty couch in Blue Base. The flower petal you coughed up had been picked up and tucked away in Doc's armor. 'For more observation and tests' was what he said before he finished packing up the rest of the medical tools he had used on you. After that day, the coughs had been an off and on again reoccurrence. Caboose seemed to have stepped in whenever Tucker or Tex would happen to be close to where you were hacking your lungs out for the second time that week. For someone who never kept up with what was going in half the time, Caboose had known that you were in pain and not feeling your best anymore.

After the first time you had coughed up the petal, one or two would seem to follow. It wasn't coughing up whole flowers, but even one petal was a lot to deal with on its own. The sun beat down on the top of your helmet as you watched your team stand around and attempt to train with lousy drills you had instructed, more like suggested. With a huff your hand rose to scratch at your already scratchy throat for the third time in the first hour, you had been perched atop the Blue Base. Caboose, Tucker, and Tex were down on the bottom and Church were nowhere to be seen. If his ghosty ass was to materialize around the boys, you would find some excuse to avoid the former blue. Poor Caboose, he tried his best to make up excuses as to why you never talked to Church as much as you used to.

The thought of the male brought a harsh cough to spill from your lips, then a few more spine racking heaves for air had you almost bent over backward. Flower petals tickled your throat, and the urge to shove your fingers down your throat to pluck them out was deadly tempting right now.

"Jesus Christ, at this rate your ass will be joining mine the more you keep this shit up." A familiar voice spoke up, ceasing your coughs and the urge to breathe all at once.

Swallowing harshly, and hoping to god you could hold back the flowers from traveling up your throat any higher your head turned to face the icy colored see through _'ghost'_ of a man. Church had his sniper rifle clipped to his backplate and his arms crossed firmly over his chest plate. If he didn't have his helmet on his equally clear, icy blue eyes would be staring daggers into the back of your head. Tilting your head to the side just enough to get the man into your peripheral vision, the words had tried forming in your mouth without bringing up the damned velvety soft petals that were stuck in your esophagus.

"Sounds like a hell I'd rather not join." Your voice was gravelly. It sounded like you smoked a pack of cigarettes mixed with a voice of a girl who was trying to sound sexy.

Tucker's scream had snapped your attention forward once more. Tex had the soldier by the throat in one hand while shaking her finger at Caboose with the other. Another scream and an aqua blur sailed through the air until the male hit the ground and rolled to a stop a few feet away from the base.   
A beat of silence passed before Church had _'floated'_ to your side and sat crisscrossed next to your side. Helmet visor trained on your side profile, and to make things worse it felt like you were about to puke from the strong taste of earthy petals had hit the back of your throat. Your chest was taking the most shallow of breaths while your hands were shaking at your sides. To Church, it looked like you were dead. Internally you were just trying to hold back a wave of coughs that squeezed at your poor lungs.

"What's up with you?" Church demanded, his voice surprisingly calm but his words had the edge to it.

After a pang of awkward silence, a soft wheeze escaped your chapped lips while oxygen entered your lungs. You both cringed from the sound, but neither of you brought it up.  
Shoulders rose in a passive shrug, that only seemed to infuriate the male, even more, you finally turned your head to face him. God, he was a lot closer than you expected him to be.

"I told you I was feeling under the weather. You seemed more than happy to be away from me, even though ghosts can't get sick." Rolling your eyes at the word 'ghost'. "Getting sick changes some people because we're more miserable than usual."

You'd be preaching to the choir about feeling miserable. Having emotional heartache status of miserable was one thing, dying from unrequited feelings miserable was a whole damn story.

"You don't seem sick, other than that nasty ass cough. I know sick when I was a kid I was in and out of hospitals a lot. You seem.." His head tilted, eyes narrowing in the process. Church leaned in a little more. His helmet could have bumped the mouth part of yours if he was solid. _"Different._ I doubt some Covenant or alien bullshit disease could make you like this."

You leaned back, the air in your inhale had rattled your lungs. Now he was far too close now, way too close for along the lines of being comfortable. Flower petals seemed to flutter and stick to your parched throat. ' _You're right I'm just suffering from some fantasy disease that makes me become a walking flower garden. Did I mention I fucking die?'_ If only you could say that out loud to him right now. Instead, you brushed off his words casually.

"Guess my body is secretly dying so I could join you on the other side." You joked lightheartedly as if jokes could somehow change the subject of how your coughs were concerning to the male.

Church ground out your name causing the forced humor in your voice to die out, and the pang of awkward silence grow between you both. He shifted closer to you and reached out a hand to grab the chin part of your helmet. Although his hand went right through, you knew the action of it meant all the more serious. "You're lying. I know how you are."

Your gaze was glued to Church, your hands had clenched in tight fists. You were already uneasy as it is, now that he knew something was off it was all the more stressful. Your lungs were screaming at you to breathe, and your brain was putting up red flags for you to keep your damned mouth shut. Then again around him, you were open and you never held anything back; except for your feelings that were unnecessary in the end.

"What did I do to deserve these cold shoulder looks from you. You know how much I worry and care about you."  
His voice softened, maybe it dropped an octave. Eyes stared large holed into your visor and seemed to make you squirm underneath his intense stare.

"You seem to care more about Tex than you do me." Ouch. Now that bitch route was the one you seemed to be walking after saying that. Who were you to control his emotions and attractions? God? Hell no.

"What? (Y/N) why would you?-"

Your name was exclaimed, effectively cutting off Church's sentence. Both of your heads whipped around to see Tucker and Caboose standing behind you. Both men staring more at you, then they were at their leader of their team. With Tex nowhere to be seen it was for the best, even how you were right now. Both of you leaned into each other and Church's hand on your helmet it looked like you were both intimate. As if that didn't make your chest hurt any more than it did already. Were you shaking? Is that why Caboose and Tucker were staring at you like that?

"Let's go. Now." Tucker spoke up, his voice even having an edge of seriousness to its usual lighthearted deep tone anyway.

"I was busy here, dickbag." Church spat. His hand and body pulling away from you.

"We need her for something. The warthog broke down again." The aqua soldier stepped forward. His right hand stretched out in an offering to help you up. He was lying, both of them needed you alone right now.It was just an excuse so Church could go away.

"You guys broke that already? I just tuned up that damn thing." You deadpanned, taking ahold of his hand you were pulled up to your feet and already being pulled to where Caboose stood by Tucker's hand.

Frowning at the rough pull on your arm, you pushed the male's grip off of you once you were away from Church. Although the rough action had caused a small cough to slip past your lips. Caboose winced, and did Tucker flinch? He did.

"You all are on something. I feel like Tex is the only one that's normal here, and she's the one whos a psychotic bitch who wants to kill us." Church snapped, then flickered as a bullet sailed right through him.

Course Tex heard that, somehow, and shot at the male. If only it really hurt him, maybe it'd be karma for what you were going through right now. After she had shot at the male, Church had faded without saying bye or anything. All he did was flip Tex off in the direction where the bullet came from and leave. Now that he was gone, you bent over. Ripping your helmet off, you bent over hands planting on the steel of the base. You puked up flower petals till tears were brought to the corner of your eyes. Colorful flower petals had spilled to the ground and covered the boots of dark blue and aqua armor. Your ears rang and your heart was pounding into overdrive from the pain that squeezed at your lungs. Voices swam in your ears as you heaved until the last few petals had fallen to the ground and you could gasp for breath once more. Fuck that one hurt the most.

You wanted to cry. You wanted to scream and throw yourself off a cliff. Your arms shook with the strain to hold your shaking body up. Sweat made your hair stick to your scalp, and the tears in your eyes had clouded your vision to the point of barely making out the kaleidoscope of colors that were on the ground under you.

"Holy shit," Tucker whispered, his dark brown eyes staring at you in disbelief.

Caboose was staring at you, hands were glued to the mouthpiece of his helmet like he wasn't used to you having flowers escape your mouth. You needed sleep, you needed a distraction of this terrible illness. You were cursed to be forever alone, that's what you always said. Now you were going to die alone because fate wanted to be that bitch that bent you over and fucked you in the end. Panting for breath, you finally managed to blink back the tears far enough so you could see. A few rebellious ones poured down your cheeks gently. Those bright colors seemed darker to you now, slightly muted and leaning towards the shade of black. Maybe that was your delusional panic setting in. You had a right to panic, after all, you just revealed your disease to another person on your team and in this canyon.

Caboose was frozen to his spot, he was nearly shaking as bad as you were. Tucker was, well, he was panicking and in that split moment he had swept your body up into his strong arms. Your head was digging into the curve of his neck. He smelled clean, for being stuck out in the middle of nowhere and sweating your asses off 24/7.

"Caboose wasn't lying. Mother fucker." His deep voice vibrated in your head, his hold on you made you lose the breath that you fought so hard to gain.   
"Hide the petals, I'm taking her to bed before anybody else needs to see this damned thing."

Through bleary-eyed vision, and you barely whimpering in pain from how fast Tucker was high tailing it to his room. You could hear the male curse over and over under his breath. That's what you could remember hearing before you had passed out in his arms.

Darkness was what you woke up to. Darkness and the slight stream of sunlight that stood out starkly in the bedroom. Thick. cotton, white sheets that smelled strongly of earth, gunpowder, and cologne had slowly awoken your senses. This wasn't your room that was the first thing you thought of before you slowly opened your eyes. They felt swollen like you had cried your eyes out for a whole day. The next thing you felt was that ghostly pain in your chest, but it didn't hurt as bad as the illness first affected you. You felt almost relief whatever happened after you passed was a miracle.

"You're awake. " Tucker spoke up, his voice causing you to nearly jolt in his bed. Wait, in _his_ bed. You were in _his_ bed.

Yanking the covers up, your eyes had scanned your body quickly. Clothed in your undersuit for your armor, you gave a sigh of relief. Well, the male would never try anything with an unconscious girl. Although waking up in a boy's bed without knowing how you got there was still suspicious.

"Chill, I carried you to bed and I've been stuck here watching your ass. Caboose wouldn't let me leave before you had woken up."   
You turned on your side to face Tucker as he spoke.

He was sitting down on the other side of the bed where you weren't laying on. His helmet was off as well as armor. God he looked worried, you have never seen him this worried until you had discovered his _'special rock'_ and what he was doing behind it. That was more horrified than worrying, to say the least.

"Did you-" You fiddled with the sheets in your grasp. Eyes diverted from his face long enough to scramble your brain for a way to finish your sentence. "Did you happen to see everything that happened before?" Your voice dropped to a whisper.

A sharp breath broke the heartbeat of silence that passed between the both of you. "How could I not? It's not every day someone pukes up flowers."  
  
"Don't tell anyone about this. I mean it." Your brows furrowed in frustration. Body shaking in a slight effort to sit up in bed while nearly demanding your teammate to keep his mouth shut.

"Why would I? It's not like anyone would believe me."

"Tucker you're an idiot. I don't expect a lot from you now these days." Rolling your eyes, you shoved the blankets off your body and made a show of standing up from his bed.

"Where are you going now, you've been out for the past hour and a half." Brown eyes were fixated on your frame while you walked to his door.

"Doc. I need ideas of how I can somehow distract these disease, or possibly distract myself from this shit." Yanking the door open, you bit down on your bottom lip slightly. Your head tilted to give a look at the male. His eyes hadn't left you since you got up.  
"Thanks, for taking care of me. You made me feel a lot better than I've felt in a while."

"Anytime babe. Maybe next time I could do the distracting part for you. Besides, a little morphine does the soul some good. Thank Doc for that also when you see him."

Ignoring the pickup line, and nickname he called you. You let the male be and made your way into your own room. When you had entered your room, you froze. Your eyes had caught sight of the colorful flower petals in the little pile on your dresser. Caboose had placed those thereafter Tucker laid you to sleep in his room. How could something that held so much beauty, and was cherished by everyone could bring you a grimace? They looked ugly to you now the more you looked at them, shimmering brightly against the bright rays of sun that shone through your window. On top of finding ways to distract yourself, maybe you could figure out what type of flowers were growing in your chest.

Maybe you could take Tucker up on that offer for a _distraction_ after all.


End file.
